i saw yesterday with kumasi. te good morning, america. for our viewers in the west, we start the week with a major breakthrough on gun safety on capitol hill. bipartisan progress. after nationwide calls for reform following the uvalde and buffalo massacres, senators announce the framework for a deal on gun safety. what's in? what's out? what's next? and how the white house is responding. wildfires and heat wave. 100 million americans in 24 states on alert for extreme heat. where you'll see dangerous record-breking triple-digit temperatures. plus, the red flag warnings for five states in the west. the mandatory wildfire evacuations. ginger is tracking it all. inflation nation driving up. the average cost of a gallon of gas now above $5 nationwide with

station owners fed up too. january 6th committee hearing. the bipartisan group set to make the case today that former president trump's false claims of election fraud fueled rioters. riot derailed. 31 members of an alleged white supremacy group arrested charged with conspiracy to commit a riot at a pride event. how they were discovered packed inside a u-haul. royal return? is prince andrew pushing to get back into public life? the last-minute change of plans overnight. will he get his royal status back? the latest from the palace this morning. justin bieber's health scare. new details on the pop star's rare condition that left half his face paralyzed. plus, country star toby keith reveals he was diagnosed with stomach cancer. dr. ashton here to break down both. summer travel game changer. what you need to know about the cdc's new covid testing rules for anyone flying into the country. and gearing up for game five.

one lucky nba superfan is about to win tickets to tonight's big game live on "gma." good morning, america. thank you for joining us on this monday morning and one superfan will be very, very happy. >> yeah, we're looking forward to that in a bit. we hav a lot of news to get to. the breakthrough on gun safety. people were marching across the country over the weekend in the wake of the spike in nationwide mass shootings. >> as a bipartisan group of senators reached a deal on a package of measures that is limited in scope, but still would be the most significant federal legislation on it for 30 years and rachel scott is on capitol hill with the latest. good morning, rachel. >> reporter: george, good morning. this deal is far more limited than what democrats had hoped for, but after nearly 30 years of congressional inaction and another streak of violent mass shootings, a bipartisan group of senators said this time, failure could not be an option. this morning, a bipartisan

breakthrough after nationwide calls for reform. >> what do we want? >> all: gun control. >> when do we want it? >> all: now! >> reporter: senators announced a deal on gun safety. >> once the text is finalized i will put this bill on the floor asap, as soon as possible, so that congress can quickly act to do something meaningful against gun violence. >> reporter: in the wake of the buffalo massacre that left ten dead and in uvalde where 19 children and 2 teachers lost their lives, 10 republicans joining 10 democrats proposing to strengthen background checks, allowing juvenile records to be ko screened for gun buyers under 21, expand gun restrictions for convicted domestic violence abusers and funding for states for red flag flags to take guns away from people considered dangerous and bolster mental health programs.

president biden giving his stamp of approval. lawmakers were under immense pressure to act. thousands taking to the streets this weekend calling for change. >> stop the -- >> all: violence! >> stop the -- >> all: violence! >> reporter: with a deal in hand senator john cornyn stating the tragedies in uvalde and elsewhere cried out for action and this morning parkland survivor david hogg says this time may finally be different. >> it makes me want to cry tears of happiness. it's the first step, not the last. >> reporter: senators have agreed on a framework but this is far from a done deal. senators will next have to draft the legislation. one republican source telling me the details of this bill will be absolutely critical to making sure enough republicans stay on board to get it across the finish line. michael, they want to see the fine print. >> i'm sure they do. thanks, rachel. as we saw, president biden giving the thumbs up. chief white house correspondent

cecilia vega has more on the reaction and the president gave his stamp of approval even though it does fall short of what he's pushing for. >> reporter: yeah, michael, good morning. it certainly does. the president, many democrats, guns rights advocates wanted to see a ban on the type of high-capacity guns used in uvalde, and they wanted to raise the age limit to 21 for folks who can buy those types of guns. and they really wanted universal background checks. none is in the plan but president biden is calling this move marginal albeit important saying this would be the most significant gun safety legislation in decades. here's the thinking inside the party right now, they're really at this point taking whatever they can get. the president calling this a step in the right direction, breaking the gun control logjam we've seen on capitol hill for decades but he has this bipartisan support or capitol hill has the bipartisan support, rather. he says there should be no excuse in any kind of delay in getting this legislation to his desk so he can sign it into law. but, amy, the reality is he is well aware there's very little more in terms of significant

moves he can make on his own like executive actions on gun control. he says this is an issue, amy, for voters at the ballot box now. >> all right, cecilia vega at the white house, thank you for that. we turn to the wildfires igniting in the west and the 100 million americans now on alert for dangerous heat. ginger is tracking the triple-digit temperatures and the fires for us. good morning, ginger. >> good morning to you. there are 37 large uncontained fires from alaska down to new mexico but i wanted to start you out just north of flagstaff. they have evacuations still in place. they've only got this pipeline fire 1% contained. they did arrest someone who started it. a 57-year-old man. so a lot of folks being more than inconvenienced and fearful this morning of losing their home but no structures so far have gone. oceanside, 75-acre fire so some are not counted but small and then they get evacuations going. down in arizona where that flag staff was, look at the numbers.

we saw denver see their -- tie their earliest 100 on record. next 113, vegas, their hottest so far this year, a lot of folks will feeling this. those advisories go from ohio and west virginia to north carolina back to new mexico. this is just for the heat alone. when you add humidity up in a place like st. louis feeling like 110 and you know this doesn't end today, michael. i'll show you how long it lasts coming up. >> i don't think i've seen a map with all those 100s on it. ginger, thank you for that. now to the soaring price of gas above the $5 a gallon milestone and aaa saying that the national average is currently checking in at a record $5.01. eva pilgrim at a gas station in new york with more for us. good morning, eva. >> reporter: good morning, michael. check out the price behind me. $6.49 a gallon and that is for regular gasoline and a lot of places are seeing the prices even higher according to aaa. gas is nearly $2 more per gallon than it was this time last year. that means on average people are spending $160 more per month

just to fill up. even gas station owners are fed up. this one in minnesota putting up a sign saying, quote, we hate our gas prices too. michael? >> yeah, funny sign but gas prices aren't funny. it's not just gas costing us more. >> reporter: that's exactly right. according to the bureau of labor statistic, prices are up across the board. rent jumped more than 26% from last year. food prices are up. we're not just talking about eating out. we are talking about going to the grocery store and eating at home. that is up almost 12%. that's the biggest increase since 1979. protein really seeing a spike. eggs up more than 32%. meat, poultry, fish, up more than 14% and in all it is costing $341 more per month for you to buy the same things you were buying last year. michael? >> well that is the strain on everyone. thank you, eva. george? we get the latest on the hearings examining the january

6 6 6th insurrection. they're under way again today this morning. jon karl has the details. >> reporter: good morning, george. today's hearing will focus on the lie that the election was stolen because it was that lie that motivated the mob to invade the capitol on january 6th. they believe donald trump's false claims that he had won the election that biden had stolen it from him. so you'll be hearing from several people close to donald trump, both in taped deposition and live withnesses saying that trump was lying and he knew he was lying. the bottom line is, they will show that not only was trump lying about the election but that he knew he was lying and, george, here's a critical fact about today's hearing. we're told that bill stepien,

donald trump's campaign manager is not going to be here today. a person briefed on the matter said the committee was informed his wife is going into labor today. he's unable to make it. you'll hear from four live witnesses. three of those witnesses are republicans. a fourth witness is a long-time fox news analyst. the bottom line is the committee is trying to get this message out to the people who believe what donald trump said about the election and prove definitively it's simply not true. george? >> round two, jon karl, thanks very much. live coverage of the second hearing of the january 6th committee this morning on abc. amy? we have the latest on the war in ukraine and people bravely struggling to get back to some sort of normal life in some parts of the country while an intense battle rages on in the east. our foreign correspondent james longman on the scene in ukraine with the latest for us. good morning, james. >> reporter: yeah, good morning, amy. parts of ukraine are coming back

to normal slowly. here in dnipro people are enjoying the sun but make no mistake russia is slowly strangling this country. vladimir putin is very close to achieving one of his main objectives in the east. war hangs over this whole country but in kyiv a weekend at the beach made life feel normal at least. locals flock to the banks of the dnipro river even if the threat of air strikes still looms. a different story on this odesa beach where an explosion left one person dead. in the east the war rages with greater intensity. ukraine trying to hold on to the donbas region but it's a struggle. they say russia has ten times their firepower. the epicenter of the fighting the city of severodonetsk. this video posted on social media shows fighting on the streets there in recent days. but now russian forces reportedly control most of the city. russian state media showing smoke pouring into the sky and president zelenskyy saying his

troops are fighting literally for every meter. russia driven to take territory whatever the cost. troops in mariupol show off sign. colors in front of a city- russia flying its flag in occupied territory as it looks to consolidate control. what's been called russification and in some places they staged russia day celebrations like this parade held in crimea. and in russia itself a new version of mcdonald's. the fast food giant closed so a new owner opened it. a new russian owner opened a replacement over the weekend. the new name tasty, and that's it. defense secretary lloyd austin will visit europe this week to discuss this crisis. ukraine says it's at a critical point because they're being badly outgunned by russia. michael? >> very critical. james, thank you. now we go to that shocking arrest. 31 members of an alleged white supremacist group taken into custody after being found packed inside a u-haul with riot gear not far from an idaho pride event. our chief justice correspondent

pierre thomas has that for us this morning. good morning, pierre. >> reporter: michael, good morning. police in idaho say they stopped a plot by white supremacists to target a gay pride celebration, potentially averting a dangerous scene. here they are, 31 members of what authorities say is the patriot front, a white nationalist group arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit a riot in the small town roughly 400 miles north of boise. dressed in matching attire, white masks, blue shirts and khakis but police say they also had shields and at least one smoke grenade. >> we received a telephone call from a concerned citizen who reported that approximately 20 people jumped into a u haul and, quote, looked like a little army. >> reporter: authorities say they found documents laying out the group's plan for a riot as well as the location of a park where the gay pride event was being held. the men came from at least 11 other states including texas, washington, colorado and arkansas. >> preventing a riot by arresting 31 people with a misdemeanor, i will gladly do

that every day of the week. >> reporter: the gay and lesbian alliance against defamation expressing gratitude toward law enforcement and warning we might not be so lucky next time given the rise of white supremacists and far right groups in recent years. >> we are seeing that both anti-government extremist groups as well as white nationalist groups are focused on june being pride month. you have extremist groups that view this as an opportunity to create havoc. >> reporter: the suspects are now out on bail and expected to appear in court later today. homeland security and police officials say it's a volatile moment with domestic radicals especially white supremacists energized and angry, actively discussing the need to attack. amy? >> all right, pierre thomas with the latest in washington, thank you. now to the u.s. navy grounding all nonessential flights for today in the wake of a series of aircraft crashes. it's being called a safety pause and chief national correspondent matt gutman joins us now with what that means. good morning to you, matt.

>> reporter: hey, good morning, amy. it means that the navy and marines will ground every single military aircraft across the entire military service. now, this does not happen often and we're told it'll be up to each individual commander about how to use the day as long as it's about getting back to the basics and on risk and error management practices. this morning, the u.s. navy taking hundreds of its aircraft in the u.s. out of the skies following three crashes in less than a week, all of them in southern california, two of them with fatalities. the navy saying the pause will ground all navy aircraft not deployed overseas to review risk management practices and conduct training in threat and error management processes. last thursday the crew of a navy seahawk helicopter surviving a crash, but just a day before a navy pilot on a training mission was killed when his f-18 crashed and days before that five marines were killed when their

osprey went down near coachella. >> military aircraft osprey that went down, there's five subjects on the aircraft. >> reporter: the names now of the lost marines now released. among them, 19-year-old lance corporal evan strickland and captain john sax, son of l.a. dodgers legend steve sax who during happier times talked about his son's lifelong dream. >> at 7 years old my son was so fortunate to kind of know what he wanted to do in his life. he wanted to be a pilot in the marine corps. >> reporter: now, the three crashes are still under investigation but there have been additional fatal crashes in recent months and this is starting to draw the attention of capitol hill where there is increasing concern about military aviation safety. george? >> okay, matt. thanks. now to the nba finals all tied up at 2-2 with a series between the warriors and celtics shifting back to san francisco for a ■pivotal game five. will reeve is at chase center.

good morning, will. >> reporter: hey, good morning, george. we are back in the bay all tied up. these two teams have been trading wins all series long. the warriors stealing game four back in boston to regain home court advantage. if the home team wins each of the next three possible games, the warriors would win their fourth title in the last eight years but the celtics have not lost consecutive games in these playoffs and if that trend continues they would go back to boston for game six with a chance to clinch at home but tonight the home crowd will be decked out in warriors yellow. 18,000 of these t-shirts and screaming fans all cheering for their home grown superstar steph curry. he's been on fire. 43 points in game four. he has been a shoo-in or will be for his first nba finals mvp if the warriors hang on to win the title. his splash brother klay thompson tore his acl three years ago today exactly. it's been a long road back for him. he's been hot when the warriors have needed him to be but

staying cool this weekend taking a swim in the bay. it's back to business tonight. this pivotal game five, in nba finals history when it's tied up after four game, the winner of game five goes on to win the title nearly 75% of the time. guys, it's going to be a good one. >> it sure is. will, thanks very much. we'll have more coming up from san francisco. take a look. one of those nba superfans is about to win tickets to tonight's game. also on "gma" the summer game changer with the new cdc rules on international travel and what it may mean for you. where you can still find deals on flights. will prince andrew make a royal return? we'll have the latest from the palace on the last-minute change of plans overnight. first let's go back to ginger. >> thanks, amy. we'll get a check a little closer to home.

coming up, tom hanks and austin butler will be live on "gma." stay there. we'll be right back. ron. that man is always on. and he's on it with jardiance for type 2 diabetes. his underhand sky serve? on fire.

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discomfort with the. building a better bay area moving forward finding solutions. this is abc. seven news. good morning. i'm reggie aqui from abc. seven mornings, the 35th anniversary of the aids memorial quilt display just wrapped up its two day appearance in golden gate park. thousands showed up this weekend to see the largest quilt display in san francisco's history. there are more than 3000 hand stitched panels, each representing a life lost to aids . and as each quilt was laid out in the meadow, the names of those who lost their lives were read aloud. gonna bring it over now to karina with a look at our track. already we're still looking at a big problem. this one here from earlier this morning happened close to four a.m, but still an issue. there is a sigalert in sunnyvale for a trailer that caught fire, and that's why you're seeing all those delays. on one oh one

south. dont wanna one before lawrence expressway only two lanes open. they're working on getting this cleared and out of the way, but it's been taken awhile so speeds they're down to 24 mph give yourself extra time. a quick look at the bay bridge toll plaza camera metering lights flipped on at 5 43 this morning and you could see the backups there 25 minutes from the toll plaza into the city. to make that commute. colonel thank the toll plaza into the city. to make that commute. colonel thank you. we're meet three sisters learning how to spend, save, and budget. all with chase first banking. freedom for kids. ♪ ♪ control for parents. one bank with tools for both. chase. make more of what's yours.

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from within? dupixent helps keep you one step ahead of eczema with clearer skin and less itch. hide my skin? not me. don't use if you're allergic to dupixent. serious allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems such as eye pain or vision changes, including blurred vision, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection. don't change or stop asthma medicines without talking to your doctor. ask your doctor about dupixent. take a look at temperatures were cooler this morning compared to this time yesterday. 5 to 12 degrees cooler, so lower humidity waking up to temperatures in the fifties this morning, so you're going to feel that refreshing hair. as you step outside a gorgeous view from our rooftop camera here at k g o a lot of sunshine, a light breeze the big takeaway today not as humid as yesterday and comfortable sunshine seventies and eighties away from the coast, reggie thanks for

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know it's only through your sacrifice that our meals are enjoyed. ba da ba ba ba are you ready to fly? are you ready to fly? >> i'm ready to fly. ♪ >> all america will be talking about elvis presley. >> welcome back to "gma." oscar winning legend tom hanks teaming up with rising star austin butler to take on the story of the king, "elvis," and we're talking to them live. that's coming up in our next hour. that was a bad impression, but i tried. >> worth a shot. >> yeah. following a lot of headlines including the marches across the country this weekend in light of the nationwide mass shootings. it includes money for states to implement red flag laws to keep dangerous people from getting gun, money for school safety and

mental health and expanded background checks for 18 to 21. in uvalde today, tess mata will be laid to rest. also this morning, new relief on the nation's baby formula shortage. another 95,000 set to arrive in ohio later this week. in all that's 380,000 pounds of formula set to hit store shelves in a week. an overnight at the tony aw awards, "a strange loop," won best new musical and made one of the producers, jennifer hudson, an egot winner. she is one of only 17 to win an emmy, a grammy, an oscar and a tony, congratulations to her. >> amazing. we have a lot ahead including the latest on justin bieber revealing the illness paralyzing part of his face and dr. ashton joins us with more all coming up. the end of another covid mandate. the cdc officially lifted the requirement that international travelers test negative before landing in the u.s. transportation correspondent gio benitez is in newark airport

with the details. good morning, gio. >> reporter: hey, george, good morning. this is a big change and it's what the travel industry had been asking for. now the so-called summer of travel just got even busier. this morning, travelers are flying into america without a negative covid test for the first time in 17 months. >> can i do a dance, a happy dance for that? oh, yes, i am so grateful because it's a hassle and a whole lot of money. >> reporter: over the weekend the cdc officially dropping testing requirements for anyone flying into the country. >> given the information we have right now, i think it's reasonable to lift this ban so that we can have more travelers. >> reporter: the uncertainty of testing positive was a real fear for many americans hoping to travel overseas. >> a lot of people didn't want to travel internationally because of the testing requirement. this provides them with peace of mind. this was one of the last remaining barriers. > reporter: the decision comes right at the beginning of a busy summer travel period. the tsa regularly screening 2 million people a day. sometime this summer that number

could reach 3 million. tavian ranger has been waiting for this coming through just before his trip to jamaica. >> it feels great to know i personally do not have to make sure i'm getting a covid test. >> reporter: no negative test needed to enter the country but the cdc says it will reassess the decision in about 90 days. george? >> any deals on international travel out there? >> reporter: so, look, george, i'll be honest, summer travel deals are hard to come by but it's the perfect time to look for fall and winter deals. if you book a flight in september instead of july you could save 800 bucks. so it's a lot of money. >> sure is. gio, thanks very much. amy? george, now to prince andrew. the royal reportedly wants to be reinstated as a working member of the family and maggie rulli joins us from london with more on that. good morning, maggie. >> reporter: amy, good morning. we heard prince andrew will not be making a public appearance today. in a last-minute change of

plans, his spokesperson tells abc news he will only attend the private behind doors parts of today's event. it is being described as a family decision. the palace is saying this morning that the queen will only be attending the private parts of today's event as well and prince andrew seems to be pushing to get back into public life. "the telegraph" reporting he wants his royal status reinstated, recognized and respected and is lobbying the monarch. earlier the duke of york settled a sexual lawsuit against him. it resulted in him losing his status. today is about to show how tricky any attempt at returning to public life is for prince andrew and the palace to navigate. >> going to be tricky for sure. thank you so much. appreciate that. coming up, we have the latest on justin bieber's ramsay hunt syndrome. dr. ashton is here with the

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we are b we are back with justin bieber revealing on social media he has been diagnosed with ramsay hunt syndrome, a rare condition causing paralysis of part of his face and forcing him to postpone dates on his current tour. lara has d. good morning, lara. >> good morning, michael. yeah, justin shared an emotional video where he shows he cannot blink, move his nostril or anything on the right side of his face. he's asking fans for prayers and says the condition doesn't seem

to be getting any better. ♪ what do you mean ♪ >> reporter: this morning, pop superstar justin bieber facing another health scare. >> hey, everyone. i wanted to update you guys on what's been going on. >> reporter: telling his 241 million followers on instagram he's been diagnosed with ramsay hunt syndrome. it is a rare neurological complication from a viral infection that affects just 5 per 100,000 people a year. >> as you can see, this high is not blinking. i can't smile on this side of my face. this nostril will not move. >> it's called by the same virus as chicken pox and can remain dormant in your body before possibly reactivating causing shingles. ramsay hunt syndrome is a rare complication specifically affecting your facial nerves. >> symptoms to look out for would be hearing loss, ringing in the ear, fever, fatigue and dizziness. >> reporter: bieber asking his

fans for prayers saying in one post, it's getting progressively harder to eat. the 28-year-old singer had been out on his justice world tour before he was forced to put his shows on hold. >> i'm just physically obviously not capable of doing them but obviously my body is telling me i got to slow down and i hope you guys understand. >> the body doesn't always cooperate when you're on that kind of schedule. >> reporter: bieber opening up about his health and wellness obstacles on tour in this 2020 youtube documentary. >> i've been struggling with my energy for quite some time now. i realized after a series of tests that i have what's called lyme disease. ♪ i got my peaches out in georgia ♪ >> reporter: but the "peaches" singer vowing to get better, telling his fans he's already begun facial exercises. >> it can be painful and it can

be very annoying, but justin bieber will be okay. >> justin was scheduled to perform tonight and tomorrow night in new york city, then to philadelphia and connecticut but no word when he'll be back on stage. ramsay hunt syndrome is generally treatable. we sure hope he's okay. michael? >> we absolutely do, lara. thank you. we're joined now by abc chief medical correspondent dr. jen ashton. doc, let's focus on symptoms. what should people look out for in way of symptoms? >> most have heard of bell's palsy. this is similar in the world of neurology. it has to do with what the function of the facial nerve, that cranial nerve does. in terms of the symptoms, anything that the facial nerve is involved with can be a problem. it can cause weakness of facial muscles, the inability to smile or move that side of your face, difficulty in closing the eye which can be significant. there can be a painful accompanying rash around the ear and then dizziness, hearing loss, sensitivity of sound, ringing in the ears.

if you make your living singing and performing that can be a problem but to anyone dealing with this, this can be really troubling. >> he said in the post he talks about having trouble eating. >> that's really important because it's easy to think of this just as a cosmetic issue affecting what people look like, but we have to remember some of the functions of the facial nerve like the ability to close your eye, and produce tears. that is very significant for our sight. chewing, eating, obviously swallowing, can be impacted and that can affect our whole body. >> what about treatment? >> there's management. the good news about 75% of these cases do recover on their own but early treatment is really important with antiviral medication and also generally steroids. you want to start that as soon as possible before the damage to the facial nerve can progress. i want to caution, in speaking to neurology colleagues,

michael, there are some treatments out there like electrical stimulation. they are generally strongly discouraged. they can make the inflammation to the facial nerve worse. >> say it does go away, does it come back? >> it usually does not come back, but the most important thing now is when you hear a worldwide celebrity like justin bieber bring attention to this, it helps so many. >> without a doubt. glad he did that. you can find more about ramsay hunt syndrome by using the qr code on our screen or going to our website. dr. ashton will be back to talk about country star toby keith revealing his stomach cancer diagnosis and what he's saying about his treatment. amy? all right, michael, coming up next a special "play of the day." one nba fan is about to win that 75th anniversary bedazzled basketball, plus, yeah, tickets to tonight's big game five. stay with us. ♪ (sha bop sha bop) ♪ ♪ are the stars out tonight? (sha bop sha bop) ♪ ♪ ♪

alexa, play our favorite song again. ok. ♪ i only have eyes for you ♪ >> announcer: this is an abc news special report. this is now effectively a riot. >> it was carnage. it was chaos. >> after a bombshell hearing thursday night -- >> january 6th was the culmination of an attempted coup. >> -- right now, the committee makes its case. >> president trump summoned the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. >> attack on the capitol, the investigation. now reporting, david muir. and good morning. we're coming on the air this morning because the january 6th committee is about to gavel back into session.

the first of three hearings this week investigating the insurrection at the u.s. capitol. 20 million americans watched their first primetime hearing late last week. the committee continued to lay out the findings of their nearly year-long investigation into the january 6th attack. who knew what and when, including former president trump. the members are set to file into the chamber after presenting their first evidence in that primetime hearing. the members are focuses on the immediate aftermath of the election and president trump's efforts to remain in power insisting the election was stolen despite several members of his inner circle telling him he had lost and there was no evidence to back any notion of a stolen election. you can see the chair of the committee, the vice chair walking in. there's already news this morning before this starts, one of the key witnesses this morning will not be testifying as scheduled, trump's 2020 campaign manager bill stepien. he notified the committee of a family emergency this morning. the emergency is that his wife has gone into labor.

we wish her well, and mr. stepien, and his attorney will make a statement. we will hear his deposition instead. bennie thompson, democrat of mississippi about to gavel back into session. this is their second hearing, the first during the day and the first of three this week. let's listen. the committee room is full, and here we go. >> the select committee to investigate the january 6th attack on the united states capitol will be in order. without objection, the chair's authorized to declare the committee in recess at any point. pursuant to house deposition authority regulation 10, the chair announces the committee's approval to release the deposition material presented

during today's hearing. good morning. last week the select committee laid out a preview of our initial findings aboutcy overse directed by donald trump to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and block the transfer of power, a scheme unprecedented in american history. my colleagues and i don't want to spend time talking about ourselves during these hearings, but as someone who's run for office a few times, i can tell you at the end of a campaign, it all comes down to the numbers. the numbers tell you the winner and the loser. for the most part, the numbers don't lie, but if something doesn't add up with the numbers, you go to court to get resolution, and that's the end of the line. we accept those results. that's what it means to respect

the rule of law. that's what it means to seek elective office in our democracy. because those numbers aren't just numbers, they're votes. they're your votes. they're the will and the voice of the people, and the very least we should expect from any person seeking a position of public trust is the acceptance of the willf thop, win or heid have the lost, hevthe tca people. ignor oth voters. he lied to his supporters and the country, and he tried to remain in office after the people had voted him out, and the courts upheld the will of the people. this morning, we'll tell the story of how donald trump lost an election and knew he lost an

election, and as a result of his loss decided to wage an attack on our democracy, an attack on american people by trying to rob you of your voice in our democracy, and in doing so, lit the fuse that led to the horrific violence of january 6th when a mob of his supporters stormed the capitol sent by donald trump to stop the transfer of power. today my colleague from california, miss lofgren and our witnesses will detail the select committee's findings on these matters, but first, i will recognize our distinguished vice chair ms. cheney of wyoming for any opening statement she cares to offer. >> thank you very much, mr.rm.le rtlaneren president trump to overturn the 2020 election.

today we will begint plan. president trump's effort to convince millions of americans that the election was stolen from him by overwhelming fraud. a federal court has already reviewed elements of the committee's evidence on this point, and said this, quote, in the months following the election, numerous credible sources from the president's inner circle to agency leadership and statisticians informed president trump and dr. e eastman that there was no evidence of election fraud, closed quote. sufficient to overturn the 2020 presidential election. this methodically documents each of the reasons for that conclusion, and i would urge all those watching to read it. today we will begin to show the aerican people some of our evidence. today you will hear much more from a former attorney general bill barr's recorded testimony,

and you will hear in greater detail what others in the department told president trump, that his claims of election fromre trump's own mre caho had als ncludethatis fraud. let me focus briefly on just three points now. first, you will hear firsthand testimony that the president's campaign advisers urged him to await the counting of votes and not to declare victory on election night. the president understood even before the election that many more biden voters had voted by mail because president trump ignored the advice of his campaign experts and told his supporters only to vote in person. donald trump knew before the election that the counting of those mail-in ballots in several states would not begin until late in the day, and would not be complete for multiple days.

this was expected, reported, and widely known. you will also hear testimony that president trump rejected the advice of his campaign experts on election night and instead followed the course recommended by an apparently ineebuated rudy giuliani to just claim he won, and insist that the vote counting stop, to falsely claim everything was frau fraudulent. he falsely told the american people that the election was not legitimate. in his rds,quot a believe him. t dold and h l said repeatedly about dominion voting machines. far-flung conspiracies with the deceased venezuelan communist allegedly pulling the strings. this was, quote, complete nonsense as bill barr said. president trump's own campaign

advisers, his department of justice, and his cybersecurity experts all told him the same thing. here, for example, is white house lawyer eric keshman. his view was shared by many in the trump team whom we interviewed. >> i thought the dominion stuff was -- i never saw any evidence whatsoever to sustain those allegations. >> and third, as mike pence's staff started to get a acceptance for what donald trump had planned for january 6th, they called the campaign experts to give them a briefing on election fraud and all the other election claims. on january 2nd, the general counsel of the trump campaign, matthew morgan, this is the campaign's chief lawyer summarized what the campaign concluded weeks earlier that none of the arguments about fraud or anything else could

actually change the outcome of the election. >> generally discussed on that topic was whether the fraud, abuse or irregularities, if a gated and read most favorably to the campaign could be outcome determinant, and i think everyone's assessment in the room at least amongst the staff, for sure myself and greg jacob was it was not sufficient to be outcome determinant. >> as is obvious, this was before the attack on the capitol. the trump campaign legal team knew there was no legitimate argument, fraud, irregularities or anything to overturn the election, and yet president trump went ahead with his plans for january 6th anyway. mr. chairman, hundreds of our countrymen have faced criminal charges.

many are serving criminal sentences because they believed what donald trump said about the election, and they acted on it. they came to washington, d.c. at his request. they marched on the capitol at his request, and hundreds of them besieged and invaded tition asonrvivditoal board put it recently, quote, m. trump betrayed his supporters by conning them on january 6th, and he is still doing it. another conservative editorial board that has long supported president trump said last week, donald trump, quote, won't stop insisting that 2020 was stolen even though he has offered no proof that that is true. and this, donald trump now, quote, clings to more fantastical theories such as

dinesh as debunked 2,000 mules, even as recounts in arizona, georgia, and wisconsin confirm trump lost. those are the correct conclusions to draw from the evidence gathered by this committee. we have much more evidence to show the american people on this point than we can reasonably show in one hearing, but today we will begin. thank you, mr. chairman. i yield back. >> without objection, the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from california, ms. lofgren for an opening statement. >> well, thank you, mr. chairman. in our opening heviewnvtigation 6th plothe election was complex and had many parts which we'll explore in remaining hearings, but today we examine the false narrative that the 2020 election was, quote, stolen. former president trump's plan to overturn the election relied on

a sustained effort to deceive millions of americans with knowingly false claims of election fraud. all elements of the plot relied on convincing his supporters about these false claims. today we'll demonstrate the 2020 election was not stolen. the american people elected president joe biden. we'll present evidence that mr. trump's claims of election fraud were false, that he and his closest advisers knew those claims were false, but they continued to peddle them anyway right up until the moments before a mob of trump supporters attacked the capitol. we'll also show that the trump campaign used these false claims of election fraud to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from supporters w wonions were legal fight in the courts, but the trump campaign didn't use the money for that. the big lie was also a big

ripoff. the former president laid the groundwork for these false claims well in advance of the election as early as april 2020, mr. trump claimed that the only way he could lose an election would be as a result of fraud. >> do you know the things with bundling and all the things that are happening with votes by mail where thousands of votes are gathered, and i'm not going to say which party does it, but thousands of votes are gathered, and they come in and they're dumped in a location, and then all of a sudden you lose elections that you think you're going to win. >> the only way we're going to lose this election is if the election is rigged. remember that. it's the only way we're going to lose this election. >> this is going to be a fraud like you've never seen. did you see what's going on? take a look at west virginia. mailmen selling the ballots. they're being sold. they're being dumped in rivers. this is a horrible thing for our country. >> there is no -- there is no evidence of that. >> this is not going to end

well. >> mr. trump decided even before the election that regardless of the facts and the truth, if he lost the election, he would claim it was rigged. mr. trump was right about one thing. it did not end well. on election night, mr. trump claimed even before the votes were counted that his loss was a result of fraud. on thursday, we had testimony from attorney general barr about the department of justice investigation of mr. trump's fraud claims. barr told trump directly that his claims were b.s., yet after hearing the truth and that warning from the ag, mr. trump continued to peddle the false claims of fraud. you'll hear detailed testimony from attorney general barr describing the various election fraud claims the department of justice investigated. he'll tell you how he hold mr. trump repeatedly that there was

no merit to those claims. mr. barr will tell us that mr. trump's election night claims of fraud were made without regard to the truth, and before it was even possible to look for evidence of fraud. attorney general barr wasn't alone. you'll see and hear today other department of justice officials and senior advisers to mr. trump that they told him the claims he was making were not supported by evidence. the election fraud claims were false. mr. trump's closest advisers knew it. mr. trump knew it. that didn't stop him from pushing the false claims and urging his supporters to, quote, fight like hell to, quote, take back their country. after he lost the election, various legal challenges were made. you'll hear testimony today from a renowned republican election litigation lawyer who explained the normal process by which candidates challege an

election. rather than accept the results of the election and the decisions of the courts, mr. trump pursued a different strategy. he tried to convince the american people the election had been stolen. many of his supporters believed him, and many still believe him today. the attack on january 6th was a direct and predictable result of mr. trump's decision to use false claims of election fraud to overturn the election and to cling to power. mr. chairman, i yield back. >> thank you very much. i now welcome our first witness. we're joined today by former fox news politics editor chris stirewalt. bill stepien was subpoenaed to be here and was in washington this morning, prepared to testify.

kevin marino, mr. stepien's attorney is here with us today. thank you, mr. marino for coming, and he was advised -- he has advised us that mr. stepien's wife went into labor this morning. mr. stepien unexpectedly had to travel to be with his wife, and we wish him the best. due to the depth and rigor of our investigation, with several hours of mr. stepien's testimony from when we interviewed him in february, and we will be presenting that testimony today. i'll now swear in our witness. the witness will please stand and raise his right hand. do you swear or affirm under penalty of perjury that the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god? >> i do. >> thank you. you may be seated.

let the record reflect the witness answered in the affirmative. i now recognize myself for questions. i want to start by showing a video that tells the story of what was going on in the trump white house on election night in november of 2020. >> do you remember where you were on the night of the election, november the 3rd? >> i was at the white house. >> do you know where specifically over the course of that night you spent your time within the white house? >> there was an event that was organized in the residence. so i moved between the residence, a room sort of off the residence where some family members were. >> i take it the president was upstairs in the residence. >> he was upstairs. i was -- we were kind of on the first floor. so not upstairs. we were with -- mostly with

ivanka and her brothers and a couple of other people who had come in and out. >> can you describe the atmosphere? what were people expecting that night when you got to the white house? >> i think that there was typically for people who show up there, on election night, it's going to be a self-select, more positive environment. i think people were a little bit nervous not knowing what was going to happen with the red wave or the red mirage as the debate was being carried out. >> the fox news decision desk is calling arizona for joe biden. that is a big get for the biden campaign. >> arizona's called. do you remember that? >> i do. >> what do you remember happening where you were when arizona was called? >> um, i -- there was surprise at the call. >> who was surprised?

>> most everyone in the room. >> you being one of them? >> yes. >> did that shift the atmosphere or the attitude in the white house? >> completely. >> how so? can you describe that? >> because fox news was the first one to go out and say that. >> so was it anger kind of directed toward fox news at making a call more so than disappointment that maybe the campaign lost arizona? >> all of the above. >> so both. anger and disappointment? >> both disappointment with fox and concern that maybe our data or our numbers weren't accurate. >> were you in the white house residence during the sort of -- past midnight into the early hours of november 4th? >> yes. sure. it went over beyond midnight, yes. >> do you remember rudy giuliani being at the white house on

election night and into the early hours the next morning? >> i do. >> what do you remember about when he came? >> um, he -- he was -- there were -- i had heard that he was upstairs, you know, in the aforementioned reception area, and he was looking to talk to the president, and it was suggested instead that he come talk to several of us down off the map room. >> you said that you had heard that mr. giuliani wanted to talk to the president and he was directed your way. did you end up talking to him? >> i did. i did. >> what was that conversation? >> a lot of conversations were directed my way. a few of us, myself, jason miller, justin clark, and mark

meadows gathered in a room off the map room to -- to listen to whatever rudy presumably wanted to say to the president. >> was there anyone in that conversation who in your observation had had too much to drink? >> mayor giuliani. >> tell me more about that. what was your observation about his potential intoxication during that discussion about what te president should say when he addressed the nation on election night? >> the mayor was definitely intoxicated, but i do not know that his level of intoxication when he spoke with the president for example. >> were you part of any discussions with the people i mentioned, mr. stepien, mr. meadows or anyone else about whether the president should make any sort of speech on

election night? >> i mean, i spoke to the president. i spoke to the president several times that night. >> there awere suggestions by i believe it was mayor giuliani to go and declare victory and say that we'd won it outright. >> it was far too early to be making any calls like that. ballots -- ballots were still being counted. ballots were still going to be counted for days, and it was far too early to be making any propagation like that. >> i remember saying that -- to the best of my memory, i was saying that we should not go and declare victory until we had a better sense of the numbers. >> okay. can you be more specific about that conversation in particular what mayor giuliani said? your response, and then anybody else in the room's response.

>> i think effectively mayor giuliani was saying, we won it. they're stealing it from us. where did all the votes come from? we need to go say that we won, and essentially that anyone who didn't agree with that position was being weak. >> what was your view at the time as to what he should or shouldn't say? >> i don't know that i had a firm view as to what he should say in that circumstance. the results were still being counted. it was becoming clear that the race would not be called on election night. >> my belief -- my recommendation was to say that votes were still being counted. it's too early to tell. too early to call the race, but,

you know, we were proud of the race we ran, and we, you know, think we're d-- think we're in good position, and we'll have more to say about this, you know, the next day or the next day whenever we had something to say. >> and did anybody who was apart of that conversation disagree with your message? >> yes. >> who is that? >> the president disagreed with that. i don't recall the particular words. he thought i was wrong. he told me so, and, you know, that they were going to, you know, he was going to go in a different direction. >> this is a fraud on the american public. this is an embarrassment to our country. we were getting ready to win this election. frankly, we did win this election. [ cheers and applause ]

we did win this election. >> mr. stirewalt, did president trump have any basis to declare victory on november 4, 2020? >> no. >> thank you. mr. stepien also testified that president trump had no basis for declaring victory at that point in time. >> my -- my belief, my recommendation was to say that votes were still being counted. it's too early to -- to tell, too early to call the race, but, you know, we were proud of the race we ran, and we, you know,

think we're in good position. we'll have more to say about this, you know, the next day or the next day. whenever we had something to say. >> thank you. mr. stire walt, after the votes were counted, what won the presidential election of 2020? >> joseph robinette biden jr. of the great state of delaware. >> thank you. that's the bottom line. we had an election. mr. trump lost, with you he refused to accept the results of the democratic process, pursuant to section 5c-8 of house resolution 503, i now recognize the gentlewoman from california, ms. lofgren for questions. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. shirewalt, i would like you to explain a term that was

thrown around during the election a lot. that's the red mirage. what does that mean? >> so in the 40 or 50 years let's say that americans have increasingly chosen to vote by mail or early or absentees, democrats prefer that method of voting more than republicans do. publicans win elec a -- day, and democrats win the early vote. usually it's election day votes that get counted first see the republicans shoot ahead, and then the process of bailing and binding and unbinding all those mail-in votes. in some states like pennsylvania refuse to count the votes first. so you have to wait for all of that to come in. so in every election, and certainly a national election, you expect to see the republican with a lead, but it's not really a lead. when you put together a jigsaw puzzle, it doesn't matter which

piece you put in first. it ends up with the same image. so for us, who cares? but that's because no candidate had ever tried to avail themselves of this quirk in the election counting system. we had gone to pains and i'm proud of the pains we went to, to make sure that we were informing viewers that this was going to happen because the trump campaign and the president had made it clear that they were going to try to exploit this anomaly, and we knew it was going to be bigger because the percentage of early votes was higher, right? we went from about 45% of the votes being early and absentee to because of the pandemic, that increased by about 50%. we knew it would be longer and we now it would be more. we had to keep telling viewers, look. the number you see here is irrelevant because it's a small percentage of these votes. >> the red mirage, that's what you expected to happen on election night? >> it happens every time. >> thank you, mr. stirewalt. now i would like to play a clip

of attorney general bill barr who also explains what was expected to happen on election night. >> right out of the box on election night, the president claimed that there was major fraud under way. i mean, this happened as far as i could tell before there was any potential evidence, and it seemed to be based on the dynamic that -- that at the end of the evening, a lot of democratic votes came in which changed the vote counts in certain states, and that seemed to be the basis for this broad claim that there was major fraud, and i didn't think much of that because people had been talking for weeks, and everyone understood for weeks that that was going to be what happened on election night. >> mr. stepien obviously could not be with us today and it's proper for him to be with his

wife as they welcome their child, but he also had discussions with the president about the red mirage, that is that it would be a long night and that early votes would favor him, but that lots more votes would be counted over the course of the night and the days after. so let's play clip one from our interview with mr. stepien. >> i recounted back to that conversation with him in which i said, just like i said in 2016 was going to be a long night. i told him in 2020 that, you know, it was going to be a process again, as, you know, the early returns are going to be positive and we're going to be watching the returns of ballots. they rolled in thereafter. >> is it fair to say -- that's

what you thought might be a realistic picture of what might happen over the course of the night it being election night? >> that night and the days that followed, yeah. i -- i always -- i always, you know, i always told the president the truth, and, you know, i, you know, i think he expected that from me, and i told him it was going to be a process. it was going to be, you know, we have to wait and see how this turned out. so just like i did in 2016, i did the same thing in 2020. >> so let's watch a short clip of president trump speaking after he received that information from his campaign advisers. >> we want all voting to stop. we don't want them to find any ballots at 4:00 in the morning and add them to the list. >> so when former president

trump said that, it contradicted what his advisers had warned would happen. we all know that mail-in ballots played an important role in the 2020 lelection. however, president trump continuously discouraged mail-in voting. mr. stepien was so concerned about the president's position on mail-in voting that in the summer of 2020, he met with president trump along with house minority leader kevin mccarthy. let's play clip 4. >> a meeting that was had, in particular. i invited kevin mccarthy to join the meeting. he being of like mind on the issue with me, in which we made our case for why we believed

mail-in balloting -- mail-in voting not to be a bad thing for his campaign, but, you know, the president's mind was made up, and, you know, understands, you know, how many times to, you know, go to the well on a particular topic. >> yeah, i understand. tell me a little bit more about the argument that you and mr. mccarthy made to the president if in that meeting as to why it wasn't a bad thing that mail-in voting was available. >> largely two pillars to that argument, both of which i've previously mentioned. one, you know, leaving a good deal to chance, pushing -- or urging your voters only to vote on election day leaves a lot to chance. that's "a," and "b," also previously mentioned, the fact

that the trump campaign, republican national committee, republican party had an advantage of grassroots workers and volunteers on the ground that would allow, you know, an advantage to enhance return rates of ballots that were mailed. those were the two pillars of the argument. >> i see, and what if anything do you recall representative mccarthy saying during that meeting? >> we were -- we were echoing the same argument. i mean, his words echoed mine and vice versa on those two topics. >> mr. stirewalt, you were at the decision desk at fox news on election night, and you called arizona early for president biden which was controversial. how did you make that call, and where did you think the race stood in the early hours of the next day? >> well, it was really controversial to our competitors who we beat so badly by making

the correct call first. ourbest the busins cause w head with the associated press, and the national research center in chicago, and thanks to my friend in michigan who built a wonderful device for forecasting the outcome of elections. we had a different set of data than our competitors did. we had more research and a better system and we had a great team. so what you are waiting to see is do the actual votes match up with the expectations in the poll? the real votes are testing the quality of your poll in targeted precincts and in targeted places. let me tell you, our poll in arizona was beautiful. it was doing just what we wanted it to do, and it was cooking up just right, and i forget to tell you -- it's unclear exactly who,

but arizona was getting aredreao make a call, and my boss, bill salmon said, we're not making a call until everybody says yes. that's our policy, ewe unimrepud together for a decade, and were really serious about this stuff. we knew it would be a consequential call because it was one of five states that really mattered, right? wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania, georgia, arizona were the ones we were watching. we knew it would be significant to call any one of those five, but we knew trump's chances were very small and getting smaller based on what we had seen, and we were able to make the call early. we were able to beat the cometition. we looked around the room, everybody says yea, and on we go. by the time we found out how much everybody was freaking out and losing their minds over this call, we were already trying to call the next state. we were moving on, and we were

onto georgia and north carolina, and we were looking at these other states and so we thought it was -- we were pleased, but not surprise. >> i see. you know, after the election as of november 7th, in your judgment, what were the chances of president trump winning the election? >> after that point? >> yes. >> none. i mean, i guess you could -- it's always possible that you could have, you know, a truckload of ballots be found somewhere, i suppose, but once you get into this space, you know, ahead of today i thought about what are the largest margins that could ever be overturned by a recount in the normal kind of -- the stuff we heard mike pence talking about sounding like a normal republican that night when he said, we'll keep every challenge. nothing like that. in a recount, you're talking about hundreds of votes. when we think about calling a race, one of the things that we would think about is, is it outside the margin of a recount? when we think about that margin,

we think about in modern history, you're talking about 1,000 votes, 1,500 votes at the way, way outside. normally you're talking about hundreds of votes, maybe 300 votes they're going to change. so the idea that through any normal process in any of these states and he had to do it thrice. right? he needed three states to change and in order to do that, you're at an -- you're better off to play the powerball than to have that come in. >> on november 7th, the other major news outlets called the race for president biden. now mr. stepien told the committee that he thought the odds were, and this is a quote, very, very, very bleak, and held a meeting with the president that same day. let's show clip 8, video clip 8. >> with each day that wore on, i mean, the trajectory of the race on election night, trump ahead,

in many states and as that week wore on, as the third became the 4th, became the 5th and so on and so forth, and the vote by mail ballots were calculated, you know, trump's lead, you know, grew more narrow, and then in some places, biden surpassed, you know, trump in the vote totals. so as the week wore on, as we paid attention to those numbers every single -- multiple times a day, you know, internally, i was feeling less confident for sure. >> what was your view of the state of the election at that point? >> um, you know, very, very, very bleak. you know, i -- we told him the group that went over there outlined, you know, my belief in chances for success at this point, and then we pegged it at,

you know, 5%, maybe 10% based on recounts that were -- that, you know, were either automatically initiated or could be -- could be initiated based on, you know, realistic legal challenges. not all the legal challenges that eventually were pursued, but it was, you know, my belief is that it was very, very bleak. 5% to 10% is not a very good, optimistic outlook. >> now as president trump and others continued to claim that the election was stolen, there were lawyers who were apart of the campaign, campaign lawyers who were responsible for investigating the fraud claims. that includes alex cannon who could not validate the claims that were being made, including those being made by the president. let's roll video 15.

13. >> this is an email -- it's two emails actually. the first is from alex cannon, and you forwarded that to mark meadows, and jason miller. the federal i.d. voters. if you look at that email there, it says, we completed the analysis you requested. i assume that's about arizona, and because of the substantial uncertainty surrounding the data bases, this is a highly unreliable way to identify ineligible voters. can you explain the task that you gave to ms. cannon for this arizona analysis? >> sure. previously i described some of my frustration with some of the claims that people would throw at president trump regarding, you know, you need to look at

this. you know, this happened in this state or that happened in that state, and it would be, you know, those would float us to look into. i talked about that before i think. >> yep. >> you know, this is an example of that. i recall -- i recall in arizona someone had thrown out, i believe this to be the claim, that there were thousands of illegal citizens, people not eligible to vote having cast their ballots in arizona. someone had thrown out that claim to president trump, and with, you know, the margins being as close as they were as i previously described, you know, that could potentially matter. so this wild claim is thrown out which, you know, on its face didn't seem, you know, realistic or possible to me. i asked alex to look at the, you

know, the claim, and i -- i haven't read this full email, but i recall the response to that. the reality of that was not illegal citizens voting in the election. i think it was, like, overseas voters voting in the election. so obviously, you know, people who were eligible to vote. >> when these findings were passed up the chain to president trump, he became frustrated, and he replaced the campaign's legal team. let's play clip 14. >> you know, i think the president -- it was during the second week where things, like, you just played were occurring, and he was growing increasingly unhappy with, you know, his team, you know, me. less so because i was less

involved at this point, but still me growing increasingly unhappy with justin clark, and that kind of, you know, paved the way for, you know, justin to be moved out and mayor giuliani to be moved in as the person in charge of, you know, the legal side of the campaign, and for all intents and purposes, the cam campaign. >> when mr. stepien became campaign manager, he was the second trump campaign manager for the 2020 race, and there were only about 115 days until election day. so let's play the video. >> i inherited a campaign that was -- the day i was hired, was i believe president trump's low point in the 2020 daily average polling against president biden.

it was a campaign at a low point in the polls. it was structurally and fiscally deficient, and i, you know, there was a great deal wrong in the campaign in both of those -- in both of those areas. so most of my day was spent fixing what -- i think i took over with 115 days left in the campaign. most of my time was spent fixing the things that could be fixed with 115 days left in the campaign. >> now mr. stepien has been in the campaign field for a long time, and he worked for lots of different candidates and campaigns. he testified to this committee about his concerns given the claims that mr. giuliani and ms. powell and their team were making publicly.

let's play clip 15. >> okay. was it important for you, mr. stepien to pull back just for your own professional reputation? you didn't want to be associated with some of what you were hearing from the giuliani team and others that sort of stepped in in the wake of your dep departure? >> i didn't mind being categorized -- there were two groups of, you know, we called them kind of my team and rudy's team. i didn't mind being characterized of being part of team normal as some of us started to, you know, do around that time. i said, you know, hours ago early on that, you know, i have been doing this for a long time, 25 years, and i've spanned, you know, political ideologies from trump to mccain to bush to christie, you know, and i could work under a lot of circumstances for a lot of varied, you know, candidates and

polit politicians, but the situation where -- and i think along the way i've built up a pretty good reputation -- i hope, for being honest and professional, and i -- i didn't think what was happening was necessarily honest or professional at that point in time. so yeah. that led to me stepping away. >> so the president did get rid of team normal, and i would like to play a clip showing that the president found the people he needed to perpetuate his claims of fraud. >> they ■saw a big truck bringig in 100,000 ballots in garbage cans, in waste paper baskets, in cardboard boxes and in shopping baskets and every single one of them was for biden because they were being notified by smartmatic that biden was way

behind and they better come up with a lot more ballots, and we can prove every single thing i just said. >> if you gave me the paper ballots, i could probably turn around each one of these states. i'm absolutely convince firstconvinced if you let me look at these paper ballots, it would shake the hell out of country. >> the country took a certain percentage of votes from president trump and flipped them to president biden which we might never have uncovered had the votes for president trump not been so overwhelming in so many of these states that it broke the algorithm. >> i remember that one of the things mark said at some point was, you can't show an actual vote was flipped. which i found at the time to be a remarkable assertion bec

because -- because you don't have to have the gun to see the body lying on the floor bleeding out with five bullet holes in it was killed by a gun. >> what they were proposing i thought was nuts. the theory was also nuts, right? it was a combination of italians, germans, different things that were floating around as to who was involved. venezuelans, and there's an affidavit from somebody who said they wrote a software and something with the philippines. just all over their radar. >> did you ever share your perspective about him with the president? >> um, i guess -- i -- yes.

>> tell me what you said. >> basically not the approach i would take if i was you. >> okay, and how did he react? how did president trump react when you shared that view with him? >> he said, you know, i have confidence in rudy. >> i think i had conversations with probably all of our counsel who were signed up to assist on election day as they disengaged with the campaign. the general consensus was that the law firms were not comfortable making the arguments that rudy giuliani was making publicly. i seem to recall that i had a similar conversation with most all of them. >> i made it clear i did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff which i told the president was bull -- and, you know, i didn't want to be apart of it, and that's one of the reasons that went into me

deciding to loeave when i did. >> even sidney powell, defending herself in a defamation lawsuit brought by dominion voting systems argued that, quote, no reasonable person would conclude that her statements were truly statements of fact. mr. chairman, i yield back. >> i thank the witness for joining us today. the first panel is now dismissed. without objection the chairman recognizes the gentlewoman ms. lofgren. >> thank you, mr. chairman. last week represented the

testimony of former attorney general bill barr who testified before this committee. today we present additional evidence including his testimony that former president trump started making claims of election fraud immediately after the election, and that barr concluded the claims were untrue. now due to the length of attorney general barr's testimony, we're only going to include relevant portions at the hearing today. so let's play the video. >> the department, in fact, when we received specific incredible allegations of fraud, made an effort to look into these to satisfy ourselves that they were without merit, and i was in the posture of trying to figure out -- there was an avalanche of all these allegations of fraud that built up over a number of days and it was, like, playing

wh wh whac-a-mole because it would come out. and there were also the early claims that i understood that were completely bogus and silly and usually based on complete misinformation, and so i didn't consider the quality of claims right out of the box to give me any, you know, feeling that there was really substance here. >> for the first time since the election, the attorney general spoke personally with the president on november 23rd, and this was at the white house. let's play the video please. >> so on november 23rd, i hadn't spoken to the president since the election and, in fact, as i said, since the middle of october roughly, and it was a little -- getting awkward because obviously he had lost the election, and i hadn't said anything to him, and so cipollone said i think it's time you come over here, and so i

came over to meet with the president in the oval office, and meadows and cipollone were there, and the president -- and leading up to this conversation with kushner. the president said there had been major fraud, and that as soon as the facts were out, the results of the election would be reversed, and he went on on this for quite awhile as he's prone to do, and then he got to something that i was expecting which is to say that apparently the department of justice doesn't think that it has a role of looking into these fraud claims. i said, you know, that has to be the campaign that raises that with the state. the department doesn't take sides in elections and the department is not an extension of your legal team, and our role is to investigate fraud, and we'll look at something if it's

credible and could affect the outcome of the election, and we're doing that, and it's just not -- they're just not merit meritorious. they're not panning out, and as i walked out of the oval office, jared was there with dan scavino who ran the president's social media, and who i thought was a reasonable guy and believe is a reasonable guy, and i said, how long has -- how long is he going to carry on with this stolen election stuff? where is this going to go? and by that time, meadows had caught up with me and leaving the office and caught up to me and said that, look. i think that he's becoming more realistic and knows the limit to how far he can take this, and then jared said, you know, yeah we're working on this.

we're working on it. >> even after his attorney general told him his claims of election fraud were false, president trump continued to promote these claims. >> i felt that things continued to deteriorate between the 23rd and the weekend of the 29th, and then on november 29th, he appeared on maria bartiromo's show "sunday futures," i believe it was, and he said he believed the department was missing in action. >> we had glitches where they moved thousands of votes from my account to biden's account. these are glitches and they're not glitches. these are theft. this is fraud. absolute fraud. this election was over, and then they did dumps. they call them dumps. big, massive dumps in michigan, in pennsylvania, and all over. how the fbi and department of

justice, i don't know. maybe they're involved, but how people are allowed to get away with this stuff is unbelievable. >> now spurred by what he saw, barr told "the associated press" on december 1st that there was no evidence of election fraud, and immediately after attorney general barr's statement went public, mr. trump berated and nearly fired barr, but he persisted in saying there was no evidence to support the fraud claims. >> this got under my skin, but i also felt it was time for me to say something. so i had -- i set up a lunch with the ap reporter, mike balsamo, and i told him at lunch, made the statement that to date we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election. i had a later meeting scheduled

at the white house at 3:00 with meadows. this was previously scheduled so i knew this was going to come up and i went over there and i told my secretary that i thought i would probably be fired and told not to go home -- i mean, not go to back to my office. so i said, you might have to pack up for me, and so when i got over there, i met with the chief of staff. he said the president was angry. he didn't. really go -- get into the issue of the fraud, and then i went up to pat cipollone's office and we were talking with each other, and word came down that he wanted us both to go to the oval, and the president was as mad as i've ever seen him, and he was trying to control himself. the president said, well, this is, you know, killing me. you didn't have to say this. you must have said this because you hate trump. you hate trump. then he raised the big vote dump as he called it in detroit, and

that, you know, he said, people saw boxes coming into the counting station at all hours of the morning, and so forth and so i explained to him that at that point i knew the exact number of precincts in detroit. i think it was 630-something. i said, mr. president, there are 630-something precincts in detroit and elsewhere in the state, and they're not countedp. they're moved to counting stations and a normal process would involve boxes coming in at all different hours. so there's nothing -- i said, did anyone point out to you -- did all the people complaining about it point out to you that you did better in detroit than you did last time? there's no indication of trfrau in detroit, and i told him that the stuff that his people were shoveling out to the public was bull -- that the claims of fraud were bull -- and he was

indignant about that, and i reiterated that they wasted a whole month on these claims on the dominion voting machines and they were idiotic claims, and i specifically raised the dominion voting machines which i found to be among the most disturbing allegations, disturbing in the sense that i saw absolutely zero basis for the allegations, but they were made in such a sensational way that they obviously were influencing a lot of people -- members of the public, that there was this systemic corruption in the system, and that their votes didn't count, and that these machines controlled by somebody else were actually determining it which was complete nonsense, and it was being laid out there, and i told him that it was -- it was crazy stuff and they were wasting their time on that, and it was doing a great, grave

disservice to the country. >> okay. so the very next day, the president released a video rehashing some of the very same claims that his chief law enforcement officer had told him were, quote, nonsense. >> here's an example. this is michigan. at 6:31 in the morning, a vote dump of 149,772 votes came in unexpectedly. we were winning by a lot. that batch was received in horror. we have a company that's very suspect. its name is dominion. with the turn of a dial or the change of a chip, you can press a button for trump and the vote

goes to biden. what kind of a system is this? >> barr again told the president that there was nothing to these claims on december 14th. >> when i walked in and sat down, he went off on a monologue saying that there was now definitive evidence involving fraud through the dominion machines, and a report had been prepared by a very reputable cybersecurity firm which he identified as allied security operations group and he held up the report, and he asked that a copy of it be made for me, and while a copy was being made, he said, you know, this is absolute proof that the dominion machines were rigged. the report means that i'm going to have a second term, and then

he gave me a copy of the report, and as he talked more and more about it, i sat there flipping through the report and looking through it, and to be frank, it looked very amateurish to me. it didn't have the credentials of the people involved, but i didn't see any real qualifications, and the statements were made very con cluzry, like, these were designed to engage in fraud or something to that effect, but i didn't see any supporting information for it, and i was somewhat demoralized and i said, boy, if he really believes this stuff, he has lost contact with -- with -- he's become detached from reality if he really believes this stuff. on the other hand, you know, when i went into this, and would, you know, tell him how crazy some of these allegations were, there was never -- there was never an indication of

interest in what the actual facts were. in my opinion then, and my opinion now is that the election was not stolen by fraud, and i haven't seen anything since the election that changes my mind on that, including the 2,000 mules movie. >> well, maybe you can assess that 2,000 mules since people are talking about that. >> well, i mean, just in a nutshell -- the gbi was unimpressed with it and i was similarly unimpressed with it because -- i was holding my fire on that to see what the photographic evidence is because i thought, hell, if they have a lot of photographs of the same person dumping a lot of ballots in different boxes, you know, that's hard to explain. so i wanted to see what the

photographic evidence was, but the cell phone data is singularly unimpressive. i mean, it basically -- if you take 2 million cell phones and figure out where they are physically in a big city like atlanta or wherever, just by definition you're going to find many hundreds of them have passed by and spent time in the vicinity of these boxes, and the premise that, you know, if you go by a, you know, five boxes or whatever it was that that's a mule is just indefensible. by definition you're going to have hundreds of this. i saw one contractor said, we figured out that our truck alone would account for six cell phone signals. this was a, you know, some kind of contractor, and, you know, our route would take us by these things on a regular basis. so -- but then, you know, when the movie came out, you know, i

think the photographic evidence in it was completely lack -- i mean, there was a little bit of it, but it was lacking and it didn't establish widespread illegal harvesting. the other thing is people don't understand is that it's not clear that even if you can show harvesting, that that changes the result fs s of the election. courts are not going to throw out votes and harvest it. the burden is on the challenging party to show that illegal votes were cast. votes were the result of undue influence or bribes or there was really, you know, the person was noncomp men us to, and i didn't see any of that anyway. i felt that before the election, it was possible to talk sense to the president, and while you

sometimes had to engage in, you know, a big wrestling match with him, that it was possible to keep things on track, but i was -- felt that after the election, he didn't seem to be listening and i didn't think it was, you know, that i was inclined not to stay around if he wasn't listening to advice from me or his own cabinet secretaries. >> so on december 14th, barr quit. now the attorney general wasn't the only person who told the president that his claims were false. other officials and close advisers told him the same thing. >> rather than try to address the factual crime or hypothetical, he would say, there were instances where the president would say, people told me this, or i saw this, or i saw

on television this inpropriety in atlanta or pennsylvania or something. we were in a position to say, our people have already looked at that and we know you're getting bad information. that's not correct. it's been demonstrated to be, you know, incorrect from our point of view. and has been debunked. >> a month and a half or so after the election day, and at that meeting, you know, various allegations of fraud were discussed, and, you know, eric and pat didn't, you know -- told the group, the president included that none of those allegations had been substantiated where they could be the basis for any litigation challenge to the election. >> president trump's own vice

president and his top advisers also knew that there wasn't evidence to support the claims that the president was making. >> anyone else other than mr. meadows who asked you about the status outside of your legal group, you know, mr. morgan and the other two mentioned? did anyone else ask you the status to what you were finding in your assessment of it? >> uh, yes, sir. >> who is that? >> peter navarro. >> when did you talk to mr. nav navarro? >> mid-november. >> around the same time as mr. meadows? >> yes, sir. >> and tell me about that conversation. >> um, i recall him asking me questions about dominion and maybe some other categories of

allegations of voter fraud, and i remember telling him that i didn't believe the dominion allegations because i thought the hand recount in georgia would resolve any issues with the technology problem with dominion or dominion flipping votes, and i mentioned at that time that chris crabbs had released a report saying the election was secure, and i believe mr. navarro accused me of being an agent of the deep state working against the president. i never took another phone call from mr. navarro. >> anyone else besides mr. meadows, mr. navarro, or mr. herschmann that you had discussions with inquiring about what you were finding in your -- in your view of the allegations that were pouring in?

>> i believe i had about a 15-second conversation with the vice president about it as well. >> when was that? >> during one of the visits to the white house. i don't know which one. i think it was the first one in november. i was -- i had met him briefly at the campaign, and he remembered me and saw me, and he asked what i was doing on the campaign and i told him that, you know, we were looking into some of the issues related to voter fraud, and he asked me -- i don't remember his exact words, but he asked me if we were finding anything, and i said that i didn't believe we were -- or i was not personally finding anything sufficient to alter the results of the election, and he thanked me. that was our interaction.

>> at a later hearing, you'll hear live testimony from the former acting deputy attorney general of the department of justice, rich donahu g, he. here's his testimony. >> i'm trying to put this in very clear perspective to the president and i said something to the effect of, sir, we've done dozens of investigations, hundreds of interviews. the major allegations are not supported by the evidence developed. we've looked at georgia, pennsylvania, michigan, nevada. we're doing our job. much of the info you're getting is false, and then i went into this thing from michigan, this report about 68% error rate. the reality is it was only .0063% error rate, less than 1 in 15,000.

so the president accepted that. he said, okay, fine, but what about the others? again, this gets back to the point that there were so many of these allegations that when you gave him a very direct answer on one of them, he wouldn't fight us on it, but he would move to another allegation. so then i talked about -- a little bit about the pennsylvania truck driver. this is another allegation that had come up, and this claim was by a truck driver who believed perhaps honestly, that he had transported an entire tractor trailer truck full of ballots from new york to pennsylvania. this was, again, out there in the public and discussed, and i essentially said, look. we looked at that allegation. we looked at both ends. both the people ends, the people who load the truck. that allegation was not

supported by evidence. again, he said, okay, and then he said, no, i didn't mention that one. what about the others? and i said, okay, well, with regard to georgia, we looked at the tape, we interviewed the witnesses, there is no suitcase. the president kept fixating on this suitcase that supposedly had fraudulent ballots and it was rolled out from under the table, and i said, "no, sir. there is no suitcase. you can watch that video over and over. there is no suitcase. there is a wheeled bin where they carried the ballots, and that's just how they move ba lots around that facility. there's nothing suspicious about that at all." i told him there was no multiple scanning of the ballots. part of that allegation is they were taking one ballot and scanning it through three, four, five times to rack up votes presumably for vice president biden. i told him that the video did not